Thursday, August 22, 2013

Tomas Quintana's recent visit to Myanmar

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, was in Myanmar last week
on a 10-day fact finding trip. It was his eighth official visit to the country
that took him to Rakhine State, Chin State, Kachin State and Shan State, and
Meikhtila in Mandalay Region.

Quintana’s visit to Burma got off to a bumpy
start when he was greeted in Arakan State by nearly 90 Arakanese Buddhist Magh
protesters, some of whom carried signs urging the “one-sided Bengali lobbyist”
to “get out,” reflecting perceptions among some that the UN envoy is biased in
favor of the state’s Rohingya Muslims. It is not unusual for a country that has
come to symbolize the den of intolerance, racism and bigotry in our times. Many
in Burma—including the government—refer to the Rohingya - who are indigenous to
Arakan before Buddhist Maghs moved to the region – as Bengalis.

At Wednesday’s press conference, Quintana pushed
back against accusations of bias, saying, “Let me reaffirm that I have a
willingness to work for the human rights of all the people of Myanmar. … I am
ready also to talk to those who disagree with my approach and with my opinions.
I did it in Rakhine State, I stepped off my car and I talked to the
protesters." “The condition is that it has to be a peaceful dialogue and
that’s the challenge in Myanmar with respect to this issue.”

Quintana's ordeal recalled the difficulties
previous U.N. envoys had in dealing with Myanmar before military rule ended in
2011, when they were often barred from meeting people, snubbed by officials and
even denied entry to the country.

The human rights situation in Arakan State has
drawn international attention and severe condemnation, with human rights groups
and foreign leaders alike expressing serious concern over the humanitarian
conditions of some 140,000 IDPs (internally displaced people) who live in 76
squalid camps that are located outside the state’s townships. The IDPs, most of
whom are Rohingyas, were driven from their homes in two bouts of genocidal
campaigns by the racist Buddhists last year. The Rohingyas have faced systemic
discrimination for decades and are denied citizenship by the apartheid
government, which contends that they are illegal “Bengali” immigrants from
neighboring Bangladesh.

Just days before Quintana’s arrival, police
opened fire on crowds of Rohingya Muslims in IDP camps outside of Sittwe
(Akyab), the state capital, in the latest instance of violence to hit the
troubled region. At least one Rohingya was killed by police bullets and several
others were wounded by the gunfire.

In Kachin State, Quintana met last week with
government officials and representatives of the Kachin Independence
Organization (KIO), but was denied access to the KIO stronghold of Laiza on the
Sino-Burmese border, with the government citing security concerns. “This
pattern of denying access, not only to address humanitarian shortcomings but
also serious human rights concerns, needs to change immediately,” Quintana said
on Wednesday.

In Meikhtila, his planned visit to an IDP camp
on August 19 had to be cancelled after a group of Buddhist protesters
aggressively confronted him. He said: "My car was descended upon by a
crowd of around 200 people who proceeded to punch and kick the windows and
doors while shouting abuse."

In March, following weeks of incitement of
religious hatred within the community, violence targeting the Muslim community
erupted in Meikhtila, leaving over 10,000 Muslims displaced. The pogrom against
Muslims there saw Buddhist mobs torch whole Muslim areas in violence that
spread to other parts of the country. The victims included more than 20
students and teachers of a Muslim school on the outskirts of Meikhtila, who
were set upon by armed men and beaten and burned to death, according to
witnesses interviewed by AFP.

Graphic video footage given to AFP by activists
shows an embankment next to the school turned into a killing field, watched
over by uniformed police who did nothing to stop those horrendous crimes.

After the March violence, Quintana said the
reluctance of security forces to crack down on the unrest suggested a possible
state link to the fighting. Commenting on the mob attack on his car this time,
he said, "The fear that I felt during this incident, being left totally
unprotected by the nearby police, gave me an insight into the fear residents
would have felt during the violence last March, as police allegedly stood by as
angry mobs beat, stabbed and burned to death some 43 people."

In a statement released by the UN Information
Center, Quintana highlighted the role of the state in preventing such incidents
from spiraling out of control: "I must highlight the obligation of the
police to act immediately to control violent mobs running riot in communities,
and protect all people regardless of their religion or ethnicity; something it
seems they have not done during the violence in Meiktila."

After meeting with residents who witnessed the
scenes last March, he stressed, "The violence in Meiktila has highlighted
to me the dangers of the spread of incitement of religious hatred in Myanmar,
and the deadly environment that this can create. The central and state
government has an obligation to address these worrying trends."

Quintana visited Lashio in Shan State where he
met with township authorities and Muslim leaders. During the violence in late
April, which affected the Muslim community in Lashio, in most cases the police
stood by while the Buddhist mobs set fire to Muslim houses, shops, a mosque and
a Muslim orphanage. A Muslim man was brutally beaten to death with sticks and
stabbed, and his wife was severely injured. Thousands of Muslims remain
internally displaced in the region.

Quintana also noted that the state and central
government in Myanmar are working well with the international community to
address urgent humanitarian needs of both Rakhine Buddhists and the Muslim
communities. "However," he said, "my overriding concern is that
the separation and segregation of communities in Rakhine State is becoming
increasingly permanent, making the restoration of trust difficult. This
continues to have a particularly negative impact on the Muslim community. The
severe restrictions on freedom of movement in Muslim IDP camps and villages
remain in place. I visited Aung Mingalar, the only remaining Muslim ward in
Sittwe, where a large number of people are living in a confined space, with the
periphery marked out with barbed wire and guarded by armed police. This has
serious consequences for fundamental human rights, including access to
healthcare, education, as well as access to livelihoods. Furthermore, there
continues to be cases of humanitarian workers facing intimidation by local groups
when attempting to provide healthcare to the camps, which compounds the problem
of access to healthcare."

He welcomed the disbandment of Nasaka, a border
security force which has committed numerous human rights violations over the
years. He said, "The police and army have now taken charge of security in
Rakhine State. Although there are legitimate security concerns which the police
and army are addressing, I have received many serious allegations of the
disproportionate use of force in dealing with large crowds of Muslim
protestors. The latest incident saw live ammunition used to disperse a crowd of
Muslims in Sittwe, with two killed and several injured. Security forces need to
stop the use of excessive force. Sittwe and in particular Buthidaung prison are
filled with hundreds of Muslims men and women detained in connection with the
violence of June and October 2012. Many of these have been arbitrarily detained
and tried in flawed trials. I met the State Chief Justice and urged for the
respect of due process of law. The use of torture and ill treatment, including
some cases of death, during the first three months of the June outbreak, needs
to be properly investigated and those responsible held to account."

He called on the Myanmar Government to fulfill its
obligations in stemming the spread of incitement of religious hatred directed
against minority communities, through strong public messaging, the
establishment of the rule of law, and policing in line with international human
rights standards. He said, "The starting point for the solution to the
situation in Rakhine lies with the unavoidable role of the state in pursuing
policies that benefit both communities and brings the restoration of the rule
of law as a means to build bridges between them."

The U.S.-based group Physicians for Human
Rights, in a report released Tuesday, blamed the government for failing
"to protect vulnerable groups" and allowing "a culture of
impunity for the violators," and called on the government to conduct thorough
investigations and prosecute those responsible. It warned that Burma risked “catastrophic”
levels of conflict, including “potential crimes against humanity and/or
genocide,” if authorities failed to stem anti-Muslim hate speech and a culture
of impunity around the clashes.

As I have noted in my earlier commentaries on
Myanmar, the state remains a pariah state with its apartheid structure intact. The
so-called reform activities of the government of Thein Sein have not put a dent
in that massive structure. Unless, that structure is uprooted and its racist
and bigot elements within the broader society tamed down Myanmar would continue
to repeat her past crimes and her records of human rights abuses and tortures
would remain a matter of grave concern to the civilized world. The UN and the
international community, on their part, need to ensure that Myanmar's Thein
Sein government is not prematurely rewarded for its half-hearted reform
activities, which thus far, deplorably, have been hypocritical to the core to
fool them. They ought to also make sure that the ideologues of Buddhist racism
and bigotry against the Muslims and Christians are hunted down for their
incitement of genocidal activities within Myanmar. Only by bringing such war criminals
– the promoters of intolerance – to the book, can the government send the
message to its racist and bigotry-ridden, fractured society that such evils
will no longer be tolerated in new Myanmar.

Will the Buddhist leaders of Myanmar have the hindsight,
courage and wisdom to do what is morally right towards bridge-building and finding
a place in the civilized world? Or, is it a hopeless case with this Mogher
Mulluk that will continue to snub voices of reason and wisdom, so well put by
Tomas Quintana in his press release?

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I have a long history of a peaceful activist in my effort towards improving human rights and creating a just and equitable world. I have written extensively in the arena of humanity, global politics, social conscience and human rights since 1980, many of which have appeared in newspapers, magazines, journals and the Internet. I have tirelessly championed the cause of the disadvantaged, the poor and the forgotten here in Americas and abroad. Commenting on my articles, others have said, "His meticulously researched essays and articles combined with real human dimensions on the plight of the displaced peoples of Rohingya in Myanmar, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo and Palestine, and American Muslims in the post-9/11 era have made him a singular important intellectual offering a sane voice with counterpoints to the shrill threats of the oppressors and the powerful. He offers a fresh and insightful perspective on a whole generation of a misunderstood and displaced people with little or no voice of their own." I have authored 13 books, 10 of which are now available through the Amazon.com.